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Communist Party of Peru : Democratic revolution

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DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

INTRODUCTION

Upholding, defending and applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, President Gonzalo establishes that the Peruvian revolution in its historical course must first be a democratic revolution, then a socialist revolution which in turn must unfold cultural revolutions in order to reach Communism, all in an uninterrupted and specific process carried out by the application of people's war. To reach this conclusion, his point of departure was Marx's teaching, that Germany needed to replay the peasant wars of the XVI century, which would have channeled the democratic energy of the peasantry. Lenin developed this point further, holding that since the bourgeoisie is a decrepit class and since the peasantry have raised the necessity of destroying feudalism, they could only fulfill a democratic revolution under the leadership of the proletariat. Later, Chairman Mao established in On New Democracy that as part of the world proletarian revolution, a transitional stage consisting of a joint dictatorship of the revolutionary classes must be formed in opposition to the bourgeois dictatorship, which can only be fulfilled under the leadership of the proletariat.

President Gonzalo takes into account the specific conditions of Peru that are characterized as follows:

In the historical process of Peru there has not been a bourgeois revolution, since the bourgeoisie were incapable of leading it. Consequently, the land question and the national question are two pending problems to be solved.

We are in the era of imperialism and of the world proletarian revolution, therefore, the proletariat is the class that has the task of destroying imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism and semi-feudalism, not for the benefit of the bourgeoisie but rather for the proletariat, the mainly poor peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie.

The Peruvian proletariat has matured with a Communist Party of a new type capable of leading the revolution.

The democratic revolution of the old type is no longer appropriate, but instead a bourgeois revolution of a new type is needed; and that this type and all revolutions today can only be fulfilled through people's war, the principal form of struggle, and by the revolutionary armed forces, the principal form of organization.

Thus, he establishes the character of Peruvian society as a semi-feudal, semi-colonial one in which bureaucratic capitalism develops. He also sets the targets of the revolution, the tasks to undertake, and finally he defines the social classes and outlining the essence of the democratic revolution, its practicality today and its perspectives.

1. THE CHARACTER OF CONTEMPORARY PERUVIAN SOCIETY

Based on historical materialism, he analyzes the Peruvian process of history and shows that in the old society an agrarian order unfolded based on the ayllu, which was a communal agrarian order which was beginning to develop a form of slavery, the Incan empire erected through wars of conquest. Later in the XVI Century, the Spanish brought a decrepit feudal system and imposed it by force of arms against the resistance of the natives, and Peru became feudal and colonial; later, with independence, Spanish dominance was broken, but the feudal system was not. The emancipators were landowners and the peasants did not achieve the conquest of the land. The XIX Century expresses an intense struggle between England and France to dominate us; and by the mid-century, the first sprouts of capitalism begin to develop on the existing feudal base. All this process in Peru is going to mean a change: The passage from feudalism to semi-feudalism and from colonialism to semi-colonialism.

In characterizing contemporary Peruvian society, President Gonzalo says: "... contemporary Peru is a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society in which bureaucratic capitalism develops." Although Mariátegui had defined it well in the third point of the Program of the Constitution of the Party, this character is the light of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly of Maoism. President Gonzalo has demonstrated how this semi-feudal and semi-colonial character maintains and develops itself through new modalities, and in particular how bureaucratic capitalism has developed on this base throughout the entire process of contemporary society. This a problem of transcendental importance in order to understand the character of society and of the Peruvian revolution.

Bureaucratic capitalism is a fundamental thesis of Chairman Mao that it is not yet understood nor accepted by all the Marxists throughout the world, which for obvious historical reasons was not known by Mariátegui, and that President Gonzalo applies to the concrete conditions of our country. He maintains that in order to analyze the contemporary social process, one must start from three intimately linked problems: The periods that bureaucratic capitalism is going through; the process accomplished by the proletariat in its highest expression, the Communist Party; and the road that the revolution must follow. He teaches us that since 1895 three historical moments can be differentiatedin contemporary Peruvian society:

1st moment. The development of bureaucratic capitalism. The constitution of the PCP. Definition and outlining of the path of surrounding the cities from the countryside;

2nd moment. The development of bureaucratic capitalism. Reconstitution of the PCP. Establishment of the road of surrounding the cities from the countryside;

3rd moment. The general crisis of bureaucratic capitalism. The leadership of the PCP in the People's War. Application and development of the road of surrounding the cities from the countryside.

At the same time, he proposes that contemporary Peruvian society is in a generalized crisis, a serious and incurable illness that can only be transformed through the armed struggle. The Communist Party of Peru is leading the people in this, as there is no other solution.

Why is Peru semi-feudal? President Gonzalo states: "The decrepit semi-feudal system continues subsisting and characterizes the country from its deepest foundations to its most elaborate ideas. In essence, it persistently maintains the land question unresolved, which is the motor of the class struggle of the peasantry, especially of the poor peasants that are the immense majority." He stresses that the land question continues subsisting because the semi-feudal relationships of exploitation allow semi-feudalism to evolve, and it is the basic problem of society that is expressed in land, servitude, and gamonalismo. ["The term gamonalismo designates more than just a social and economic category: that of the latifundistas or large landowners. It signifies a whole phenomenon. Gamonalismo is represented not only by the gamonales but by a long hierarchy of officials, intermediaries, agents, parasites, etc. The literate Indian [sic, -- Trans.] who enters the service of gamonalismo turns into an exploiter of his own race. The central factor of the phenomenon is the hegemony of the semi-feudal landed estate in the policy and mechanism of the government." J.C Mariátegui, Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality, p. 30. Quote added by translator.] We must see these conditions in all their aspects, economic, political, and ideological, in both the base and superstructure. The peasantry constitutes about 60% of the population, which for centuries has worked the land but it is tied to the big property and to servitude. Hence, a great concentration of land exists in a few hands, with both associative and non-associative forms. The immense majority of the peasantry are the poor peasantry that do not have land, or if they have it they are very few, thus giving the position of the minifundio[small landowner] submitted to the voracity of the latifundio. [Large landowner--Trans.]

This condition crushes the peasantry in a system of servitude that as Lenin taught presents itself in a thousand forms, but its essence is personal subordination. Thus we see forms centered around servile relationships such as unpaid work in the SAIS [agrarian societies], CAPS, peasant groups, in Cooperación Popular [Servile labor in government works during the Belaúnde regime.], PAIT [Assistance programs], PROEM [Emergency program run by the government.], etc. Beyond this, it is known that in the countryside for every three peasants able to work only one works, and the State tries to channel the unused labor to benefit itself with unpaid labor. We can also observe (particularly in the Sierra region) an autarchic economy outside of the national economy.

Reaffirming himself in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, President Gonzalo unfurls the principle that the agrarian reform consists in the destruction of the feudal landlord property; in the individual distribution of land to the peasantry under the slogan of "land to the tiller" ["tierra para quien la trabaja"], which is achieved through the People's War and the New Power, led by the Communist Party. This is equivalent to Lenin's thesis that there are two roads in agriculture: The landlord's road which is reactionary, evolves feudalism and supports the old state, and the peasant's road which is advanced, destroys feudalism and tends towards a new state.

He analyzes the character and the results of the agrarian laws passed by the old state, proving with certainty the subsistence of semi-feudalism, whose existence today is often denied. Thus, the Law of Bases of Pérez Godoy of 1962, the Law 15037 of 1964 and the Law 17716 of 1969 (essentially corporative that encourage big associative property) are characterized as being three laws of purchase/sale, executed by the bureaucratic apparatus of the state to develop bureaucratic capitalism. He warns that the Law of Promoting Cattle Ranching of 1980 treats the land question as resolved and at the same time advocates associative property and the return of the gamonales to invigorate bureaucratic capitalism, which is also under the control of the big bankers with the direct participation of Yankee imperialism. This is the path that the fascist and corporativist Aprista government takes [referring to the government in 1988--Trans.], which is returning to the fascist and corporative "agrarian reform" of Velasco, raising cries of "revolutionizing agriculture" and thus strengthen gamonalismo, which treats the land question as resolved and centers around productivity, gives the law of communities, the law of peasant rondas in order to deepen bureaucratic capitalism and to spread it to every corner of the country, calling the masses to corporativization, aiming at the peasant communities as the base of their corporative zeal, which equally serve the creation of the micro-regions, the regions, CORDES [A development corporation] and other fascist and corporative creations. All of this does not mean anything except new modalities of concentration of the old latifundista property, still not destroyed, and it is the old path of landowner policies followed in contemporary Peru that was brought up in the 1920s, deepened in the 1950s and especially in the 1960s, which is followed today under new conditions.

This road of the landowner is expressed politically in the old state through gamonalismo; as Mariátegui says, gamonalismo does not only designate a social and economic category but an entire phenomenon represented not just by the gamonales, but which also encompasses a large hierarchy of officials, intermediaries, agents, parasites, etc., and that the central factor of the phenomenon is the hegemony of big semi-feudal property in politics and in the mechanism of the state, which should be attacked at its root. President Gonzalo specifically emphasizes the manifestations of semi-feudalism in politics and in the mechanism of the state by conceiving that gamonalismo is the political manifestation of semi-feudalism upon which this regime of servitude is supported, in which bosses and lackeys, who change outfits according to the government in turn, represent the old state in the most remote villages of the country. Since this is an agrarian war, this is the factor which the spearhead of the democratic revolution is targeted at.

Why is it semi-colonial? Modern Peruvian economy was born in submission to imperialism (the final phase of capitalism), which was masterfully characterized as monopolistic, parasitical and dying. Imperialism, even though it allows our political independence, as long as it serves its interest, still controls the entire economic process of Peru: our natural wealth, export products, industry, banking and finances. In brief, it sucks the blood of our people, devours the energies of a nation in formation, and most strikingly today it squeezes us and other oppressed nations with the external debt.

President Gonzalo reaffirms himself in Lenin's thesis, later accurately developed by Chairman Mao, to define the semi-colonial character of our society. In synthesis, Lenin outlined that there are many forms of imperialist domination, but two are typical:

The colony, which is the complete domination by the imperialist country on the oppressed nation or nations, and an intermediate form;

The semi-colony, in which the oppressed nation is politically independent but economically subjugated. It is an independent republic, but one that finds itself subjected to the ideological, political, economic, and military web of imperialism no matter if it has a government of its own.

Thus, the term "neocolony" used by revisionism in the 1960s is rejected. It was based on the conception that imperialism applies a softer form of domination and which led them to derive the characterization of a "dependent country." Therefore, applying Chairman Mao's thesis that a period of struggle was opening against the two superpowers that contend for the repartition of the world, one must specify who is the principal enemy of the moment. He defined that the principal imperialism that dominates Peru is Yankee imperialism, but asserted that one must ward off Russian social-imperialism that penetrates the country more each day, as well as the actions of the imperialist powers that are not superpowers. Thus, the proletariat in leading the democratic revolution will not be tied to any superpower or imperialist power and must maintain its ideological, political, and organizational independence. In conclusion, he demonstrates that Peruvian society continues to be a nation in formation, and that its semi-colonial character continues, showing itself as such in all fields and under new conditions.

Bureaucratic Capitalism. President Gonzalo states that the understanding of this issue is key to the comprehension of Peruvian society. Following Chairman Mao's thesis, he specifies five characteristics:

that bureaucratic capitalism is the capitalism that imperialism develops in the backward countries, which is comprised of the capital of large landowners, the big bankers, and the magnates of the big bourgeoisie;

it exploits the proletariat, the peasantry, and the petty bourgeoisie and places constraints upon the middle bourgeoisie;

it is passing through a process by which bureaucratic capitalism is combined with the power of the State and evolves into state monopoly capitalism, comprador and feudal, from which can be derived that in a first moment it unfolds as a non-state big monopoly capitalism and in a second moment, when is combined with the power of the state, it unfolds as state monopoly capitalism;

it ripens the conditions for the democratic revolution as it reaches the apex of its development; and,

confiscating bureaucratic capital is key to reach the pinnacle of the democratic revolution and it is decisive to pass over to the socialist revolution.

In applying the above, he conceives that bureaucratic capitalism is the capitalism that imperialism generates in the backward countries, which is linked to a decrepit feudalism and in submission to imperialism which is the last phase of capitalism. This system does not serve the majority of the people but rather the imperialists, the big bourgeoisie, and the landowners. Mariátegui has already pointed out that the bourgeoisie, for example upon creating banks, generates a capital owed [enfeudado] to imperialism and linked to feudalism. President Gonzalo masterfully establishes that the capitalism that is unfolding in Peru is a bureaucratic capitalism hindered by the surviving shackles of semi-feudalism that bind it on the one hand, and on the other hand is subjugated to imperialism which does not permit it to develop the national economy; it is, then, a bureaucratic capitalism that oppresses and exploits the proletariat, the peasantry, and the petty bourgeoisie, and that constricts the middle bourgeoisie. Why? Because the capitalism that develops is a delayed process that only allows an economy to serve imperialist interests. It is a capitalism that represents the big bourgeoisie, the landowners and the rich peasants of the old type, the classes that constitute a minority but which exploit and oppress the large majority, the masses.

He analyzes the process that bureaucratic capitalism has followed in Peru, the first historical moment in which it develops from 1895 to the Second World War, in which, during the 1920s, the comprador bourgeoisie assumes control of the State, displacing the landlords but preserving their interests. The second moment is from the Second World War to 1980, a period of its expansion, during which a branch of the big bourgeoisie evolves into the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, which began in 1939 in the first government of Prado, at the time when the participation of the State in the economic process begins. Subsequently, this participation has grown even more, and was due to the fact that the big bourgeoisie, due to a lack of capital, is not capable of deepening bureaucratic capitalism. Thus a clash between both factions of the big bourgeoisie was generated, between the bureaucratic and the comprador. In 1968, the bureaucratic bourgeoisie takes the leadership of the state through the armed forces by way of the military coup of Velasco, which in turn generated a great growth in the state economy. The number of state-owned companies, for example, increased from 18 to 180; the state passes has become the motor of the economy led by the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, but it is during this moment that the economy enters into a deep crisis. The third moment is from 1980 onward, in which bureaucratic capitalism enters into a general crisis and its final destruction, a moment which begins with the People's War. Since it is a capitalism that is born critically, sick, rotten, and bound to feudalism and subjugated to imperialism, at this time it enters into a general crisis, to its final destruction, and no measure or reform can save it. It will lengthen its agony at best. On the other hand, like a beast in agony, it will defend itself by seeking to crush the revolution.

If we see this process from the people's road, in the first moment the PCP was constituted with Mariátegui in 1928, and the history of the country was split into two; in the second, the PCP was reconstituted as Party of a new type with President Gonzalo and revisionism was purged; and in the third, the PCP entered to lead the People's War, a transcendental milestone which radically changes the history by taking the superior qualitative leap of making the conquest of power a reality by way of armed force and the People's War. All of this merely proves the political aspect of bureaucratic capitalism that is rarely emphasized, but which President Gonzalo considers as a key issue: bureaucratic capitalism ripens the conditions for revolution, and today as it enters into its final phase, it ripens the conditions for the development and victory of the revolution.

It is also very important to see how bureaucratic capitalism is shaped by non-state monopoly capitalism and by state monopoly capitalism, that is the reason why he differentiates between the two factions of the big bourgeoisie, the bureaucratic one and the comprador, so as to avoid tailing one or the other, a problem that led our Party to 30 years of wrong tactics. It is important to conceive it this way, since the confiscation of bureaucratic capitalism by the New Power will facilitate the completion of the democratic revolution and to advance into the socialist revolution. If only the state monopoly capitalism is targeted, the other part would remain free, the non-state monopoly capital, and the big comprador bourgeoisie would remain economically able to lift its head to snatch away the leadership of the revolution and to prevent its passage to the socialist revolution.

Furthermore, President Gonzalo generalizes that bureaucratic capitalism is not a process peculiar to China or to Peru, but that it follows the late conditions in which the various imperialists subjugate the oppressed nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, at a time when these oppressed nations have not yet destroyed the vestiges of feudalism, much less developed capitalism.

In synthesis, the key issue to understand the process of contemporary Peruvian society and the character of the revolution, is this Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Though thesis on bureaucratic capitalism, which is a contribution to the world revolution that we Marxist-Leninist-Maoists have firmly assumed with Gonzalo Thought.

What type of state is sustained by this semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, upon which bureaucratic capitalism is unfolding? Based on the analysis of contemporary Peruvian society and the masterful Maoist thesis "On New Democracy" which proposes that the many state systems in the world can be classified according to their class character into three fundamental types:

Republics under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, which also include the old democratic states and the states under the joint dictatorship of landowners and the big bourgeoisie;

republics under the dictatorship of the proletariat; and

republics under the joint dictatorship of the revolutionary classes.

President Gonzalo establishes that the character of the old reactionary state in Peru is of the first type, a joint dictatorship of landowners and the big bourgeoisie, bureaucratic bourgeoisie or comprador that in collusion and contention struggle for the leadership of the State. Since the historical trend in Peru is that the bureaucratic bourgeoisie imposes itself, this necessarily implies a very acute and long struggle, especially since today the bureaucratic bourgeoisie is in command of the old landlord-bureaucratic state.

At the same time there are differences between the state system and the system of government. They are parts of a unity of opposites; the state system is the place that classes occupy within the state and the government is the form in which power is organized. Chairman Mao taught that the main thing is to define the class character of a state. The forms of government that are introduced can be civilian or military, with elections or by decree, liberal-democratic or fascist, but they always represent the dictatorship of the reactionary classes; to not see the old state this way is to fall into the trap of identifying a dictatorship with a military regime and to think that a civilian government is not a dictatorship, thus tailing one of the factions in the big bourgeoisie behind the tale of "defending democracy" or "avoiding military coups", positions that instead of destroying the old state support it and defend it, as is the case in Peru with the revisionists and opportunists of the United Left.

The old state is subordinated to imperialism, in our case mainly Yankee imperialism, which is propped up by its spinal column, the reactionary armed forces, and counts on a increasingly growing bureaucracy. The armed forces have the same character as the state that they support and defend.

President Gonzalo tells us clearly: "It is this social system that yields their usufruct that the ruling classes and their master Yankee imperialism defends with blood and fire, through their landlord-bureaucratic state, sustained by their reactionary armed forces; constantly exercising their class dictatorship (of the big bourgeoisie and landlords), either through a de facto military government ... or through governments stemming from elections and so-called constitutional ones..." and, "...this decrepit system of exploitation, destroys and halts the powerful creative forces of the people, the only forces capable of the deepest revolutionary transformation...".

2. TARGETS OF THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

President Gonzalo teaches us that there are three targets of the democratic revolution: imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism and semi-feudalism, with one of them being the principal target according in which the revolution crosses takes place. Today, in the period of the agrarian war, the principal target is semi-feudalism.

Imperialism, mainly Yankee, because for us it is the principal imperialism that dominates and that tries to ensure its dominance more and drives home our situation as a semi-colonial country; but we must also ward off penetration by Russian social-imperialism and of the other imperialist powers. We must use the various factions of the old state to sharpen their contradictions and isolate the principal enemy in order to defeat it. Bureaucratic capitalism is the constant obstacle of the democratic revolution that acts to maintain semi-feudalism and semi-colonialism at the service of imperialism. And semi-feudalism that subsists today with new modalities but that still constitutes the basic problem of the country.

3. TASKS OF THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

1st: To destroy imperialist domination, mainly Yankee imperialism in Peru's case , while warding off the actions of the other superpower, Russian social-imperialism and of the other imperialist powers.

2nd: To destroy bureaucratic capitalism, confiscating both the big state and non-state monopoly capital.

3rd: To destroy the property of the feudal landlords, confiscating both the big associative and non-associative properties, with individual distribution of the land under the slogan "Land to the tiller" [La tierra para quien la trabaja], primarily and principally to the poor peasants.

4th: To support middle capital, which is allowed to work while imposing conditions. All of this implies the collapse the old state through the People's War with armed revolutionary force and the leadership of the Communist Party in building a new State.

4. SOCIAL CLASSES IN THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

President Gonzalo has defined the social classes which must be united according to the conditions of the revolution: the proletariat, the peasantry (mainly the poor peasants), the petty bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie. The classes we aim against are: landlords of the old and the new mold, and the big bureaucratic bourgeoisie or comprador bourgeoisie.

President Gonzalo tells us: "... the peasantry is the principal motive force.... who for centuries fundamentally demand 'Land to the tiller', which despite their courageous struggles has yet to achieve it"; "... the proletariat... the leading class of our revolution... that in the long, arduous struggle has torn only starvation wages and has conquered only crumbs from their exploiters, only to lose them through each economic crisis that the society suffers; a proletariat that debates within a sinister iron circle..."; "a petty bourgeoisie with broad layers, which corresponds to a backward country, who sees their dreams shattered in time to the inexorable pauperization that the prevailing social order imposes to them"; and, "a petty bourgeoisie, a national bourgeoisie that is weak and lacks capital, which develops unevenly, zig-zagging and split between revolution and counter-revolution....". "Four classes that historically make up the people and the motive forces of the revolution, but of them all it is mainly the poor peasantry who are the main driving force".

A particular importance is attached to the scientific organization of poverty, a thesis that comes from Marx and that for us implies organizing the mainly poor peasantry and the poorest masses in the cities into a Communist Party, a People's Guerrilla Army and a New State that is concretized through People's Committees. A series of relationships is established. Thus, to speak of the peasant question is to speak of the land question, and to speak of the land question is to speak of the military question, and to speak of the military question is to speak of the question of power, of the New State which we will reach through the democratic revolution led by the proletariat through its Party, the Communist Party. In the People's War, the peasant question is the base and the military question is the guide. Furthermore, without the peasantry in arms there is no hegemony in the Front. It is, then, of great significance to understand that the peasant question is basic and it sustains all of the actions in the democratic revolution. It is important even in the socialist revolution.

The proletariat is the leading class. It is the class that guarantees the Communist course of the revolution, that unites with the peasantry, it makes up the worker-peasant alliance, the basis of the Front. The Peruvian proletariat that is concentrated largely in the capital and is proportionally greater than in China, but in terms of percentage decreases day by day, a specific situation that presents itself as we apply the democratic revolution, for which we wage the People's War in the cities as a complement. A class that has arrived today to the formation of a Communist Party, a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought party that has generated a People's Guerrilla Army which it leads absolutely and a New State which it leads in a joint dictatorship, a Party that through almost 20 years of reconstitution and seven in leadership of the People's War has given the people a great historical leap. It is vital to understand its leading role in the democratic revolution, since it guarantees the correct course towards Communism; and, without the leadership of the proletariat the democratic revolution would evolve into an armed action under the leadership of the bourgeoisie and would fall under the tutelage of a superpower or imperialist power.

To the above two classes are added the petty bourgeoisie, and taken together they are the solid trunk of the revolutionary Front, which is no more than a Front for the People's War and a framework of the alliance of classes that make up the New State, the People's Committees in the countryside and the Revolutionary Defense Movement of the People in the cities.

Concerning the middle bourgeoisie, today it does not participate in the revolution but its interests are respected. It is not a target of the democratic revolution; it is a class that suffers ever-greater restrictions from the reactionaries but it is of dual character and in the course of the democratic revolution can join the side of the revolution at any moment. If the interests of the middle bourgeoisie are not taken into account then the revolution would change character, it would no longer be democratic but socialist.

In sum, the New State that we are forming in the democratic revolution will be a joint dictatorship, an alliance of four classes led by the proletariat through its Party, the Communist Party: a dictatorship of workers, peasants, the petty bourgeoisie and under certain conditions the national or middle bourgeoisie; a dictatorship that today is of three classes, since the middle bourgeoisie do not participate in the revolution, but their interest are respected. These classes make up the dictatorship of New Democracy in the state system, and a People's Assembly as a system of government.

5. FUNDAMENTAL CONTRADICTIONS IN THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

In the democratic revolution there are three fundamental contradictions: The contradiction between nation-imperialism, the contradiction between the people and bureaucratic capitalism, and the contradiction between the masses and feudalism. Depending on the periods of the revolution, any one of these can be the principal contradiction. As we develop an agrarian war today, if we carefully take note of the three, the principal contradiction is between the masses and feudalism. This has a process of development in the different phases of the war, thus in our case the principal contradiction of masses-feudalism has unfolded as masses-government, and later will be between the new state -- old state, and its perspective is Communist Party -- reactionary armed forces.

6. STAGES OF THE REVOLUTION

President Gonzalo teaches us that the democratic revolution is the indispensable first stage in the oppressed nations, which will pass through various periods according to how such contradictions are resolved. There is an unbreakable relationship and an uninterrupted road between the democratic revolution and the second stage, which is the socialist revolution, and its perspective is a series of cultural revolutions to arrive at Communism, serving the world revolution. As such, we have a maximum program and a minimal one, the minimum being the program of the democratic revolution that is specified in each period and which implies a new politics: the joint dictatorship of four classes; a new economy: confiscation of big imperialist capital, of bureaucratic capitalism, and of the big feudal landlord property, with individual land distribution to the mainly poor peasants; a new culture: national, or rather anti-imperialist, democratic, or rather for the people, and scientific, or based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought. The maximum program implies that we, as Communists, aim to eliminate the three inequalities between town and countryside, between intellectual and manual work, and between workers and peasants. Two programs for which we give our lives against every kind of injury, taunt and abjectness. Only the Communists can fight for the revolution to maintain its course.

President Gonzalo stated: "What in essence is this democratic revolution? It is a peasant war led by the Communist Party, which intends to create a new state comprised of four classes to crush imperialism, the big bourgeoisie, and the landlords in order to fulfil its four tasks. The democratic revolution has a principal form of struggle: The People's War, and a principal form of organization: the armed force, which is the solution to the land question, the national question, and the question of the destruction of the landlord bureaucratic state and the reactionary armed forces, the vertebral column that sustains it, in order to fulfill the political objective of building a new state, a state of new democracy, and to make the People's Republic of New Democracy, advancing immediately to the socialist revolution. In synthesis, the democratic revolution is concretized by a peasant war led by the Communist Party; any other modality is only a service to the landlord bureaucratic state."

In synthesis, President Gonzalo demonstrates the force of the two stages of the revolution in the oppressed nations and establishes that the world proletarian revolution has three types of revolution. As such, by making the democratic revolution, the Communist Party of Peru is serving the world revolution and President Gonzalo is contributing to the world revolution. We, with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, have assumed the line on the democratic revolution established by President Gonzalo.

7. HOW IS THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION BEING APPLIED TODAY?

In over seven years of the People's War in Peru, the justness and correctness of Gonzalo Thought is demonstrated, and we see that the Communist Party of Peru, with the leadership of President Gonzalo, is leading the poor peasantry in arms, is forming a joint dictatorship of workers, peasants, and the petty bourgeoisie under the hegemony of the proletariat, is observing the interests of the middle bourgeoisie, and is destroying thirteen centuries of the reactionary state. It is a dictatorship that marches within the People's Committees, today clandestine, which are expressions of the New State that exercises power through People's Assemblies, in which everyone expresses opinions, chooses, judges, or sanctions by applying true democracy. They do not hesitate in using the dictatorship, force if necessary in order to maintain their power and to defend it from the exploitative classes or their oppressors, gamonales or lackeys; thus specifying a new politics and an advance in the seizure of Power from below. It is destroying the basis of this society, semi-feudalism, and it is introducing new social relations of production by applying a new economy, taking into account the agrarian tactic of combating the evolution of semi-feudalism by aiming at associative property and avoiding non-associative property, neutralizing the rich peasantry, winning over the middle peasantry and basing itself on the poor peasantry; and the agrarian program of "Land to the tiller" through confiscation and individual distribution through a process: with plans of razing, whose concrete objective is to destroy semi-feudal relations in order to disarticulate the productive process, directing the spearhead of the revolution at dislocating the power of the gamonales with armed actions; applying sowings and collective crop harvestings although we do not yet have power and while the EGP is not sufficiently developed, all the peasants work everyone's land, always collectively favoring the mainly poor peasantry. In the event of a surplus, a form of taxes is calculated and produce or seeds is distributed to the poorest and to the middle peasants. The lands of the rich peasants are not touched unless such land is needed, but conditions are imposed on them. This political policy has had highly positive results, it has benefitted the poorest, it has increased the quality of the products and above all it is defended better; the perspective of this policy is the invasion of lands and individual allotment. Also, particularly in new peasant zones, we have applied invasions of lands and individual allotment, lighting the struggle in the countryside and disturbing the plans of the old state, of each government in turn, in each specific conjuncture, organizing the armed defense. Today, we have generalized the land invasions countrywide. Furthermore, the organization of production of an entire people is being achieved, with the exchange of produce or seeds, the collection of firewood or cochinilla [a type of plant used in making dyes -- trans.], for example, communal shops, trade, and mule driving. This process serves the actions in cities, sabotages against demo-bourgeois or corporative-fascist state organizations, state or private and imperialist banks, imperialist centers of the superpowers or powers, industrial or "research" sites, businesses of bureaucratic capitalism, for example Centromin Perú; also the selective annihilation of recalcitrants and the agitprop campaigns and armed propaganda.

And on the basis of this new politics and new economy, a new culture is being erected that beats in the hearts of mainly the poor peasants; basic education is a problem that deserves our fundamental attention and is unfolding under coeducation, education and work, with a basic program for the children, adults, and for the masses in general; it is truly important. The problems of health and recreation of the masses are also of vital importance. Thus, the masses are organized, forming their mobilization, politicization, organization and armament, aiming towards the armed sea of masses, based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, under the leadership of the Party, with the experience of the People's War and above all and principally with the new power, exercising it, conquering it, defending it and developing it, as People's Committees, Bases of Support and advancing the People's Republic of New Democracy.

This is the democratic revolution that the Party is specifying for Peruvian society, overthrowing imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism and semi-feudalism in the country through a united People's War, principally in the countryside and with an urban complement, and it is not the "democratic revolution" falsely proclaimed by the current fascist and corporatist Apra government that denies the character of Peruvian society, classes and the class struggle, especially the landlord-bureaucratic dictatorial character of the old state, as well as the need for violence to topple it. It is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought democratic revolution that constitutes an ardent and growing flame serving the world proletarian revolution which is guaranteed by the masterful leadership of President Gonzalo.